Knights on Ice —The Post That’s Been Sitting on My Desk for the Past 16 Months

I knew I’d be writing this post. It had to be written. But what took me so long to write it is still beyond belief.

Last night’s embarrassing loss to Winnipeg by a score of 6-3 brought this piece to life.

By all rights, it should have been written at some point during the Vegas Golden Knights inaugural season. Except something happened that defied all logic: The epic VGK march to the Stanley Cup Final became a story for the ages. Just when you thought you’d seen it all, you were suddenly taken for a ride—and not just you, but the entire city of Las Vegas. And there was enough room on the Magic Carpet for everyone who wanted on.

The Golden Misfits made sure that everyone was along for the ride. They were a team of 20 with no captain to speak of, just 20 guys on a mission to prove something. Twenty guys, according to some, with pretty big chips on their shoulders.

The love affair grew no matter what adversity this team faced. They lost their franchise goaltender; no worries, we have this kid from the Bruins named Subban. They had no real superstars; no worries, Karlsson, Marchessault, and Smith lit up the scoreboard every night. You want to try to skate with us; good luck with that, because before you realize it you’re down 3-0 and T-Mobile has broken out into a pool party.

You know where this story went. You know it ended a tad bit short. Yet it was a story that became a book. Actually, there have been at least four books written about this story and how Las Vegas became a hotbed for hockey in short a short time.

The city was ready for Volume 2, the 2018-2019 season of the Vegas Golden Knights. Even though David Perron and James Neal were gone via free agency, the void left with their departures was filled by Max Pacioretty and Paul Stastny. We wouldn’t have Nate Schmidt for the first 20 games, but these are our beloved Misfits, who fear nothing.

The injury bug started early and has continued for all 63 games. But this season, there’s no solution to the injuries. There’s no unlimited scoring, no blowing away teams at T-Mobile before opponents have had a chance to even consider matching lines.

The rolling of four lines, shift after shift, isn’t an option this season. Coach Gallant has never had four complete lines to roll one after another. Their power play is dismal. Their defense looks slow. Marchessault, Karlsson, and Smith look out of sync on most nights. The Vegas Golden Knights look like a second-year expansion team looking for chemistry. Now other teams are scoring first and often.

There’s no magical lineup change by Gallant that will be an immediate fix to this. There is no magic phone call that George McPhee can make sometime between today and Monday afternoon that will turn this thing around. The once-comfortable playoff spot of third place in the Pacific Division is no longer looking so comfortable. Arizona is only 8 points out of the last remaining playoff spot in the Pacific and has two games in hand on Vegas.

Last night for a change, the VGK didn’t make the opposing goaltender look world-class, but they sure did help Patrik Laine get out of a scoring slump. Laine scored not one but two power-play goals and his first goal since Jan 13 against.Anaheim.

They helped make Winnipeg look spectacular, considering they were embarrassed with a 7-1 loss on Wednesday to Colorado and had lost their last three games by a combined score of 15-5.

Last night before VGK knew what hit them, Winnipeg scored two goals in a matter of 1:28 seconds of the first period. It took Vegas 28:09 to draw even at 2-2 with goals by Bellemare and Theodore, only to see Winnipeg score two late goals 27 seconds apart at the very close of the second period. How many two-goal comebacks do the VGK need to be competitive? You just cannot give a team with as many offensive weapons like Winnipeg multiple two-goal leads.

For the first time ever, the VGK were booed by their fans at T-Mobile. It was unsettling to hear, but it’s not like it wasn’t deserved. They haven’t played well for a while now. Just to show you that zero progress is being made, in the first 20 games, the VGK were 8-11-1. In the past 20 games, they hold the same exact record. The excuse for the first 20 was no Alex Tuch, no Pacioretty, no Stastny, no Schmidt. Well, they’re all back.

Where are the Misfits? Coach Gallant asked that very same question at his press conference. He said he hasn’t seen them in a while. Actually, no one has seen them. Before Gallant can come up with different line combos, before George McPhee can even pick up the phone to try and fix this, the Misfits must be found. This team, if you haven’t, noticed is in a tailspin, headed nose first into the desert.

I wanted to keep this article on my desk for another season. I hated that it had to be written, but it’s better now, while there’s still time to correct the problem. Was last night’s game a final game for some VGK players? Will there be an attempt to fix what needs to be fixed internally? Or will they go outside the organization?

There are no stars from last night’s game. There were certainly none on the Vegas side and frankly, I’m tired of listing opposing players who are made to look good by a second-year expansion team with no consistency.

The next game is Tuesday February 26 at 7 p.m. against Dallas. I wonder who’ll still be on the team.

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The video links:

Bellemare

Pacioretty

Marchessault

Coach Gallant